Protecting Half the Planet and Transforming Human Systems Are Complementary Goals

The unfolding crises of mass extinction and climate change call for urgent action in response. To limit biodiversity losses and avert the worst effects of climate disruption, we must greatly expand nature protection while simultaneously downsizing and transforming human systems. The conservation initiative Nature Needs Half (or Half Earth), calling for the conservation of half the Earth's land and seas, is commensurate with the enormous challenges we face. Critics have objected to this initiative as harboring hardship for people near protected areas and for failing to confront the growth economy as the main engine of global ecological destruction. In response to the first criticism, we affirm that conservation policies must be designed and implemented in collaboration with Indigenous and local communities. In response to the second criticism, we argue that protecting half the Earth needs to be complemented by downscaling and reforming economic life, humanely and gradually reducing the global population, and changing food production and consumption. By protecting nature generously, and simultaneously contracting and transforming the human enterprise, we can create the conditions for achieving justice and well-being for both people and other species. If we fail to do so, we instead accept a chaotic and impoverished world that will be dangerous for us all.

Practical Language Processing for Virtual Humans

NPCEditor is a system for building a natural language processing component for virtual humans capable of engaging a user in spoken dialog on a limited domain. It uses a statistical language classification technology for mapping from user's text input to system responses. NPCEditor provides a user-friendly editor for creating effective virtual humans quickly. It has been deployed as a part of various virtual human systems in several applications.

Developing Appreciative Teams: A Latin American Perspective

Como editores del presente número, creemos firmemente en el potencial del enfoque apreciativo para generar sistemas humanos más apreciativos, creativos, efectivos, vibrantes y florecientes en todas las culturas; incluyendo las culturas hispanoparlantes de América Latina y España. El proveer contenido en español también puede ofrecer herramientas efectivas con las que generar sistemas humanos y ecológicos más resilientes y florecientes. As the editors of this issue, we fully believe in the potential of the appreciative approach to create more appreciative, creative, effective, vibrant and thriving human systems in all cultures, including the Spanish-speaking cultures of Latin America and Spain. Providing content in Spanish can offer specific tools with which to generate more resilient and flourishing human and ecological systems.

National Academies Board on Human-Systems Integration (BOHSI) Panel: Exploring the Changing Nature of Work

The National Academies Board on Human Systems Integration (BOHSI) has organized this session exploring the changing nature of an essential human activity—work. Policing, the military, healthcare, and numerous other fields are being shaped by powerful forces. The Panel brings together prominent researchers to reflect on the organizational and societal changes as well as the impact of emerging technologies that are likely to shape the nature of work in the future.

Building a multisystemic understanding of societal resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic

The current global systemic crisis reveals how globalised societies are unprepared to face a pandemic. Beyond the dramatic loss of human life, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered widespread disturbances in health, social, economic, environmental and governance systems in many countries across the world. Resilience describes the capacities of natural and human systems to prevent, react to and recover from shocks. Societal resilience to the current COVID-19 pandemic relates to the ability of societies in maintaining their core functions while minimising the impact of the pandemic and other societal effects. Drawing on the emerging evidence about resilience in health, social, economic, environmental and governance systems, this paper delineates a multisystemic understanding of societal resilience to COVID-19. Such an understanding provides the foundation for an integrated approach to build societal resilience to current and future pandemics.